Of Darkness and Light is a marked improvement over Of Blood and Fire. It's much better written, with deeper characters, a (slightly) more complex plot, and more realistic, less wooden dialog. It's very impressive this book came out less than a year than the first novel.That said, it's hard to shake the feeling that I've read this story before.I had a great time reading this novel, but it feels a little bit like walking down a familiar, comfortable path I've been walking for years. "Eragon for adults" is a nice descriptor for the series. We have the unlikely Chosen One with a dragon, the dwarves, elves, and humans that make up the Resistance, the Evil Empire with the scary magician emperor, the generically comfy world. We even have "Fades" which are almost a beat-for-beat copy of Eragon's Shades.

That's not to say it's not a good book - it is, and it's impressive how quickly Cahill writes these. It's a fun a fun read and I was never bored. There are enough little bits of originality to keep it interesting. The Knights are very cool. And not every series needs to be completely original. I think in today's fantasy market there is a good amount of room for traditional epic high fantasy that's fallen out of fashion a bit the last decade or two.